The PGA Tour walks a fine line. The sport of golf must be elite but not aloof. Cutthroat but genteel. Entertaining but never crass. Available to the masses but always aspiring for something higher. How you play the game actually matters.

But the landscape is changing. The outside world is only getting louder. Fans want spectacles more than they want sports. And there are times when even Jack Nicklaus wonders how he would fare in the gladiator pit at the Waste Management Phoenix Open, walking out of the tunnel and teeing it up at the 16th hole.

“I don’t know how I’d do,” Nicklaus said. “When I dotted the ‘I’ with the marching band at Ohio State, there were 110,000 people in the stands. I was telling myself to not trip over the white lines. I’ve been in a lot of big galleries before, but that was different.

“The people at the 16th hole are the same way. There are galleries, and there are galleries. And the number of people that come to the tournament, and the fun that they have, is great for the sport. It may be a little bit of a circus, but that’s OK. Golf is entertainment, players love being there and you should be very proud of it. What you’ve done there in Scottsdale is fantastic.”

Nicklaus feels the same way about the current state of PGA Tour, which is entering a new season with an unprecedented depth of talent. Six of the top eight players are under the age of 30. Dustin Johnson entered the year as the top-ranked player in the world, a four-time winner in 2017, a 33-year old who is just entering his prime. Behind him are Jordan Spieth, Justin Thomas, Jon Rahm and Hideki Matsuyama, who are all 25 or younger.

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Golfing legend Jack Nicklaus speaks with Dan Bickley of azcentral sports about his career and the state of golf today.

The competition is so fierce that a par of former No. 1 players – Rory McIlroy and Jason Day – entered the season ranked 11th and 13th, respectively.

The tournament hasn’t stopped growing. The scene at No. 16 has become one of the most entertaining holes on tour, a bucket-list item for celebrities and fans alike. The event has an exquisite but dangerous energy, sun-drenched and highly inebriated. It feels like an NFL crowd, lending an element of cool to a sport that struggles for relevance.

It’s also spawned a question rarely heard in these parts: Should the tournament cap the attendance, stabilizing while they’re ahead?

There could be no higher praise of this tournament’s status and appeal, especially in a region where teams like the Diamondbacks, Suns and Coyotes struggle with attendance issues.

“No, we haven’t thought about it,” Tournament Director Carlos Sugich said. “The attendance is really driven by the weather. Last year, we had terrific weather every single day, and that’s why we got 655,000 people.

“I think at the end of the day, our efforts are to make sure that the people in attendance go beyond the three last holes. I mean, we have 18 holes at the TPC in Scottsdale. And we’re basically all in the last three. So we have a lot of real estate to grow our tournament moving forward. And part of the new additions that we’re doing like the (expanded El) Rancho or the new craft beer house on the 7th hole is precisely that – to drive people away from the last three holes. And so it doesn’t feel that it is that, you know, crowded.”

Still, the Phoenix Open is one of the sport’s great anomalies, the rare tournament that flourishes regardless of the field. To wit:

The 2017 Masters had its lowest television ratings in 13 years. The final round of the PGA Championship drew its smallest audience in nearly a decade, two months after the U.S. Open did the same. Some of the numbers can be dismissed out of hand, part of the fragmenting world of cable viewership. But there is plenty of reason to believe the new generation of golfers just aren’t connecting with fans on an emotional level.

Talent is certainly not the issue. Johnson has monstrous talent, and nearly aced a 433-yard, par-4 earlier this season. Analyst Brandel Chamblee called it the “greatest shot ever hit.”

Thomas is only 24 and carded a 59 at the Sony Open. Spieth is looking to achieve the career Grand Slam, while Rickie Fowler is still looking for his first major victory. Rahm seems destined to take the Arizona State torch from Phil Mickelson, a fading icon searching for his first victory since 2013. And the 2018 season effectively marks the last stand of Tiger Woods, who says he’s finally healthy.

“The game has more good players today than it ever has,” Nicklaus said. “We had a lot of good players in the time I played. Then we had a bit of a lull. Then Tiger starting dominating, and there weren’t a lot of good players at the time. And now, we just have a ton of good players.

“In some ways, the tour has benefitted from Tiger’s problems. He might still be dominating the game if he had stayed healthy. But when he had his issues, a lot of other players have been given a chance to win. And they have.”

Question is, do any of them resonate the way Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer did during their famed rivalry? Or how Woods and Mickelson drove the sport into the mainstream before one of them backed into a fire hydrant?

The more subtle concern is the growing disconnect between professional golfers and weekend hackers. Advancements in technology and equipment have transformed the game at its highest level, where golfers simply overpower most courses on tour.

The proliferation of big hitters on the PGA Tour is surreal, almost like the advent of 300-pound players in the NFL. Twenty years ago, John Daly became the first player to average more than 300 yards per drive. That list grew to 43 players in 2016-17. That year, there were also 29 drives that exceeded 400 yards.

Finally, consider the evolution of Fred Couples, who averaged 267 yards per drive as a healthy 22-year old, and nearly 300 yards as a 49-year old legend with a cranky back.

“Pretty soon, we’re going to run out of land,” former LPGA star Annika Sorenstam said. “You can only make courses so big. But no matter how far you hit it, you still have to put the ball in the hole.

"They say the biggest distance in golf is the distance between the ears. And I think it might make some people appreciate the women’s game a little more. Amateurs can relate to what we do because they can’t envision doing what some of the guys are doing.”

Sorenstam is right. Once upon a time, professional golfers weren’t hitting it that much farther than the rest of us. They were just more consistent and far more accurate and never struggled with the yips. Nicklaus and Woods once dominated the majors because they were tremendous putters, especially under pressure.

That is no longer the case. Pro golfers are playing a game no longer identifiable to most sports fans, no different than watching Giancarlo Stanton hit a baseball 500 feet.

“I don’t think there’s more people with power,” Nicklaus said. “The golf ball has a tremendous amount to do with it. We had guys hitting the ball a long way in my day, and if they had the same equipment, I think the distances would be comparable. But equipment has changed the game. Is that bad? Probably not. Is it good? Maybe, maybe not. I don’t know.

“Everyone wants to think their era was the best. (Ben) Hogan and (Sam) Snead felt that way. We felt that way. Tiger felt that way. And the guys today feel that way. We don’t know what’s going on (with the distance of today’s players), but it’s nice to see the game growing in popularity. Tournament golf is probably as healthy as it has ever been.”

Golf always faces a delicate balance. The sport must honor tradition and technology. It must serve yesterday and tomorrow. It needs to do something about the golf ball because no one can afford and maintain 8,000-yard courses.

Nicklaus' biggest complaint? He's not digging some of the sloppy attire and overgrown facial hair he sees on tour.

"When it comes to demeanor, dress and cleanliness, most guys are pretty good," Nicklaus said. "Some are not as good as they could be. And when I was playing, they were very hard on us, making sure we represented the sport in the best way possible. I don't think they spend as much time on that today."

None of that will matter at the Phoenix Open, where spectator attire always takes precedence. The event is the Mardi Gras of golf, a party that never stops. The mammoth crowds will make the sport look very healthy, especially if you're wearing beer goggles.

But this much seems clear: The 2018 season will be a pivotal year for the PGA Tour, which has huge talent, big hitters and sizable problems that can no longer be ignored.